Dark Arts Dispatch: Westminster’s revolving door just keeps spinning

Failed MPs and outgoing spads turn to lobbying, plus the new shadow science minister’s links to arms firms and tech giants

Revolving door: in 

One thing this Parliament certainly isn’t short on is new Labour MPs, but there were plenty more who tried and failed to make the cut. Many of these would-be MPs were left looking for alternative roles after the general election, and some found that their connections to the new governing party made them attractive candidates in the world of lobbying. 

Take Nicky Edwards, for example, Labour’s candidate in North Devon, a constituency that had a Tory majority of almost 15,000 before the election, in which Labour has never managed better than third place. She stood about as much chance of waking up an MP on 5 July as Dark Arts did. 

Writing in the local press ahead of the election, Edwards described her “long career in communications, policy, and campaigning, working largely with charities and not-for-profit organisations”. Her new gig is certainly in the communications, policy and campaigning space, though her employer is not what most people would have in mind when thinking of charities or not-for-profits. 

As of this month, Edwards is the director of public affairs at the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), which represents the gambling industry. Much of its work centres on pushing back against reform that gambling harm charities say is desperately needed to reduce the prevalence of gambling addiction. She will be working under the leadership of BGC CEO Michael Dugher, a former shadow culture minister and Labour MP for Barnsley East.  

And Edwards isn’t the only one cashing in on her party connections post-election. She joins the likes of Heather Iqbal, former staffer for Rachel Reeves whose shock loss to an independent candidate in Dewsbury and Batley resulted in her joining corporate consultancy Flint Global rather than the green benches, and Keir Cozens, a longtime Labour official who stood in Great Yarmouth and now works in ‘government relations’ at the lobbying firm Stonehaven. 

The revolving door between politics and corporate lobbying is open, it would seem, even to those who don’t manage to get elected.

Revolving door: out

The thing about the aforementioned revolving door is that it spins both ways. Though people with good Labour links are highly sought after by public affairs firms, outgoing special advisers from the last government still also offer a lot of potential benefits. While their political connections may be primarily to the opposition, they still carry with them valuable knowledge about how best to engage with a government, plus valuable contacts both inside and outside government, whether that’s civil servants or ‘industry stakeholders’ – potential clients. 

We’ve previously discussed Pierre Andrews and Neil Reilly, who were both prodigious consumers of corporate hospitality during their brief spells as spads at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and have since returned to the lobbyists they worked for before joining the government. But there’s plenty more where that came from. 

Dark Arts is aware of at least a dozen Conservative spads who’ve moved into lobbying since leaving government. Whether it’s for mega corporations such as Eli Lilly and Mars, at well established lobby shops such as Portland, Flint Global, Global Counsel or CT Group, or setting up their own ‘boutique’ agencies, these ex-spads are now using what and who they know from their time in government to work for a wide range of businesses and private interests. Often, they’re having dealings with companies and sectors that their brief in government covered. Speaking of which… 

PRAGMAtic lobbying

Much of big business’s strategy for engaging with Labour broadly falls under the category of ‘carrot’, but one new lobby group on the block has introduced itself to the party by waving a particularly large stick, quite aggressively, in the face of a spad at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

PRAGMA Energy is an advocacy group set up earlier this year by three former executives from oil and gas industry representative The Energy Council, alongside two industry heavyweights Brian Gilvary, of Ineos Energy, and Amjad Bseisu, a Conservative donor and head of Enquest Energy. The group states its goal is to “educate stakeholders”, “change the narrative”, and “showcase the economic, fiscal and societal benefits of the oil & gas industry to investors, policymakers and the wider public”.

Last week, PRAGMA’s CEO wrote an open letter describing a “conflict at the heart of UK government”. Breathlessly, Amy Miller highlighted that Tobias Garnett, a longtime adviser to energy security and net zero secretary Ed Miliband, used to work with the climate protest group Extinction Rebellion. 

“Tobias’s ideology,” she wrote, “has clearly played a role in the recent budget where the government announced that it will increase the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers”. 

“Having such ideologies at the heart of our governing party, I would suggest, runs counter to our democratic concept that ministers will represent the interests of voters with objectivity and impartiality,” Miller continued.

The letter suggests PRAGMA believes former campaigners shouldn’t become spads. But what’s its view on former spads becoming lobbyists? One might ask Hebe Trotter, who sits on PRAGMA’s advocacy committee as the vice-president of global government relations at Harbour Energy, the UK’s largest oil and gas firm, which was namedropped in Miller’s letter as suffering unfairly due to the windfall tax. Trotter joined the team at Harbour Energy in September, having months earlier left a job as, ahem, a spad at the department of energy security and net zero. 

Given Miliband is one of the most left-wing members of Keir Starmer’s cabinet, whose energy policies may seem to indulge a fair bit of greenwashing and industry spin but ultimately do come down relatively hard on fossil fuel giants, you can expect to see more of this kind of attack on him and, by extension, his team. 

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Transparency Failings

As part of the new government’s commitment to improving accountability, one might have expected an improvement to the glacial pace at which information on what hospitality key government advisers have enjoyed is made public. 

Typically, this information is published with a delay of up to six months, meaning by the time the public gets to know about lobbyists courting ministerial advisers, the decisions that said lobbyists were trying to influence have already been made. Arguably, improved transparency on this subject is most necessary at the core of government, in the Cabinet Office and No 10. 

And yet the new government has so far failed to publish any details of the gifts, hospitality and meetings involving Rishi Sunak’s advisers during the first half of this year – almost a full six months later than the information should have been made available.

4IR

Dark Arts has taken a keen interest in the efforts of big tech companies and their representatives to influence Peter Kyle, Labour’s science secretary. Kyle’s department – science, innovation and technology – carries some of the most lucrative briefs in government, not least AI. This means its ministers (and their shadows in opposition) are a major target for well-resourced lobbying organisations that stand to seriously benefit if they can help shape the legislative landscape as it is formed – or, to use a more violent metaphor, to strangle the regulatory baby in the crib. 

There will therefore be an important role to play for Kyle’s opposite number in the Conservatives, appointed by Kemi Badenoch to the first Conservative shadow cabinet in 15 years, Alan Mak. 

Mak clearly has an interest in this policy area that goes back some time. In 2016, he founded the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (4IR) – a term used to describe a predicted period of rapid technological advancement in the 21st century, popularised in 2015 by World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab.  

The APPG was active from late 2016 until Mak accepted his first ministerial role, in 2021. During that period, it was one of the best-funded APPGs, attracting donations of more than £375,000 from donors including Lockheed Martin, Deloitte, HSBC, Uber, Microsoft, BP, Boston Consulting Group and Sky Betting and Gaming. 

People in the sector who Dark Arts has spoken to fear the government is totally ‘drinking the kool-aid’ when it comes to both the potential of AI technology and what industry figures say they need from the government to facilitate their growth. But, based on his history with the 4IR APPG, there’s every reason to believe Mak will be just as accommodating to corporate interests and the whims of tech giants as Labour. 

PartyWatch

Some weeks back Dark Arts revealed that a pro-smoking lobbying group had hosted a booze cruise for parliamentary staffers and other SW1 denizens. The event may have sparked a trend; last week another boat party was held, this time on behalf of gig economy food delivery platform Just Eat and organised by lobbying firm Headland. 

Dark Arts’ invitation must have gotten lost in the post, but friends who attended say the organisers put thousands of pounds behind the bar, only for the drinks to be cut off when one parliamentary staffer got so drunk they fell down a set of stairs. 

No such boat-based fun for freebie-seeking staffers this week, as far as Dark Arts is aware, but another smoking lobbyist is throwing a Christmas drinks reception. Lobbying firm Atticus Partners is coordinating the event on behalf of British American Tobacco, with staffers invited to come along and “connect, socialise and hear about our exciting plans for 2025 and further ahead”. 

Brookfield (again)

News that Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management has bet big on UK solar power has raised more questions around conflicts of interest in the green investment space. The firm this month announced plans to pour in another £1bn before the end of the decade, including £220m for Atrato Onsite Energy, the UK’s market leader in commercial rooftop solar energy.

In the last edition, Dark Arts highlighted Brookfield’s purchase of a 12.5% stake in Orsted, a leading UK offshore wind generator. The potential conflict of interest arises when one considers that Brookfield is chaired by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who also happens to be part of chancellor Rachel Reeves’ National Wealth Fund Taskforce, which advises the government on green investment. 

Net Zero 

During the Tory leadership campaign, Badenoch sought to position herself as the anti-woke candidate who would stand up to the left on energy and the climate in particular, describing herself as a ‘net zero sceptic’. 

Accordingly, her campaign had the support of campaigners against net zero, in the form of the Tufton Street group Net Zero Watch, and its parent organisation, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). Badenoch ran her leadership campaign from the home of Neil Record, a Conservative donor who chairs Net Zero Watch and is a president of the Institute of Economic Affairs, an opaquely funded think tank with links to fossil fuels. 

Meanwhile, Michael Hintze, a hedge fund boss who has poured money into the GWPF, has given cash to several of Badenoch’s cabinet, including her shadow net zero secretary, Claire Coutinho, who has also been vocal in criticising Labour’s green policies. 

Other members of Badenoch’s shadow cabinet have adopted a tough tone on net zero, too, setting up the issue as one of the primary issues on which the Conservatives will seek to differentiate themselves from Labour. 

So the shadow cabinet Christmas party will no doubt be a barrel of laughs for the member of shadow levelling up secretary Kevin Hollinrake’s team, who moonlights as head of parliamentary affairs for the campaign group… Bankers for Net Zero.